ARH2006: Meeting "Uncle Al"...

Tonight was night 2 of rehearsal for ARH. Lots of singing. Some good, (Everyone else and Group Numbers), Some Bad (My solo numbers are going to take some serious rehearsal at home. It's crazy the amount of rehearsal and preparation goes into this singular performance show. Everyone involved has VERY high expectations for every aspect of the shows performance, though. If all goes according to plan, this should be a really wonderful show. Despite the hard work or Maybe Because of it, I am thoroughly enjoying myself.)

But all that aside, I had a very interesting experience tonight at rehearsal. When I got to the theater, there was an older guy wandering around with a camera, waiting for everyone to get there. Sharko, the piano player and songwriter for the show, apparently knew the old guy and they chatted together for a while.

I thought that the guy looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place him, for the life of me. Finally, I called Jen over and asked her who he was. "Oh, that's Ken," she said. "He's a regular around WNEP shows and is taking pictures for us tonight. He used to do a bunch of stuff with Annoyance."

"Really? Say, wasn't he Uncle Al in the Belmont Burlesque Review?" I was starting to put the pieces together.

"Yeah, yeah, I think he was." she said.

"Crazy. I play that part now. When he had to leave the show, I took over his job for him. I've never met him before. I've only seen him perform in the show, before I took over. Small world, huh."

"You should go talk to him. He's a really nice guy," she said and she wandered off to go do more important things.

I waited a second and then slowly made my way over to Sharko and Ken talking. Mary Jo, another cast member, showed up and listened in to them talking. Sharko got called away to set up the piano and I took the chance to introduce myself.

"Hi. Ken? My name is Mr.B and I'm in the cast of the Radio Hour. I was just standing over there trying to place you, but you used to be Uncle Al in the Belmont Burlesque Review, weren't you?"

"Yeah, I sure was." he said. Nice as could be.

"I saw the show two or three times. I'm friends with Hendo. Let's see, I saw the Halloween show. Weren't you dressed as Hunter S Thompsen?" I asked.

"That's right. That was a while ago. You have a good memory." If he was wary at all about who I was, I think that was starting to shake off.

"Well, I was a big fan of the show. And didn't you do the Vegas show too?"

"Yeah, we DID do a Vegas show. Man, that was years ago. It's crazy that you remember all of that stuff. I can't do the show anymore. My work schedule was getting crazy and those guys needed more of a commitment than I could give them. So, I had to step away. But I sure did love doing that show," he said. "I used to do everything I could to yank Hendo's chain onstage. Just to see if I could get him to break. I usually couldn't, but it sure was fun trying."

"Yeah, that's a damned fine show," I said.

We went on and talked about other old shows and movies. He mentioned "Coed Prison Sluts" and Mary Jo sang a few bars from it, but I didn't know it. Ken is also a 3 Stooges fan and we talked about that for a while. Ken was talking about a video that he'd brought in to show Don. He chuckled to himself to recall funny bits. At one point, he got up and acted out a bit that Mo Howard and Ted Heeley did together. We puzzled out the meaning behind one bit that was almost too archaic to be funny. I'm sure whatever it was, was a riot in the 1930s.

I shared a story that I'd just recently read about Jack Benny. (I've been doing some research about Old Time Radio guys for this show.) Ken hadn't heard it, but he appreciated it. He's a Jack Benny fan, too.

Shortly thereafter, he got called away to help with something and I got tied up rehearsing music for the show and running jingles over and over again. We didn't get to talk again for the rest of the night.

I never told him that I play his old part in the BBR. It just didn't seem right, at the time. He clearly has a fond place in his heart for the show. And he didn't leave by choice. He just did what he had to do, to keep his job and to let the BBR move on without him. I'm sure that wasn't a fun decision to make. Or an easy one. And I imagine having some young, fat, French-dialected fop come up saying, "Hey man, I got your old part in that show that you loved," would be an awkward way of starting up a friendship. So, I left that unsaid.

Really, how much of a loss is that, anyways? I made a new friend. I talked about stuff that interests me with someone that loves the BBR as much as I do. I made a direct, personable connection with the history of the show and I did it in a way that he'll be comfortable and happy to see me, the next time that we run into each other. I see that as a "Win-win" situation.